The Spanish company Ence’s income grow by 3%, reaching 627.4 million, boosted by the increase in sales of Renewable Energy, which compensates the 2% drop in revenues from Pulp.
EBITDA amounts 130.4 million euros, 26 million less than the same period in 2010, a year that set the record of profitability in Pulp.
From January to September this year, Ence has achieved a net profit of 38.3 million euros and the EBITDA went to 130.4 million. In 2010, most notably in the second and third quarters, Ence achieved the best EBITDA of the last ten years, as a result of an extremely favorable pricing environment in the pulp market. Price correction in 2011 in this market, balanced partly by the appreciation of the dollar, makes difficult to compare it with the same period of last year. In the same period last year a net profit of 54.5 million was achieved (16.2 million more than this year) along with an EBITDA of 156.9 (26.5 million more than in the first nine months of 2011). The lower strength of pulp prices, though not enough to make this market unattractive, is behind this decline.
Ence’s management in 2011 is conditioned by the evolution of international pulp markets, whose average prices, even if they continue to show significant strength, have been reduced in the first nine months by 7%. Ence has been able to avoid this drop in revenues due to its good position in the European market, which has allowed it to gain market share and increase its sales and production (from 854,738 tons in January-September 2010 to 900,060 in the same period of 2011).
In parallel with its industrial activity, Ence is focused on accelerating the implementation of the 2010-2015 Renewable Energy Plan, currently in full development. At the moment, the construction of the 50 MW plant in Huelva goes on, and finance projects are being closed in Mérida (Extremadura) and Melgar de Fernamental (Burgos) plants, whose construction could begin in January. In addition, Ence will increase before the end of the year the discharge capacity of the biomass plant in Navia (which is, before Huelva’s plant starts to operate, the largest in Spain) in 10 MW more, which will produce a very substantial increase in revenues derived from this activity.
